Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Local voting

People have now got their council voting papers, and people around the place are telling everyone which way and for whom they're voting.

Here's what I did with mine when I got them: I binned them.

I binned them for the same reason I think it's pointless having libertarians standing for council: because (putting it simply) the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act have between them unleashed councils to to become the bloated out-of-control rates monsters they've become, and because between them they make it impossible to slay the bloated monsters they've created -- and because any decent person who does try is embarking on a misbegotten quixotic quest on which their energies are all too quickly sapped.

Sandra Lee's Local Government Act handed power on a plate to councils, giving them complete freedom to charge around like a spotty boy in a sweet shop and to give you the bill for their profligacy, but that particular dragon has to be slayed all at once in Helengrad, not piecemeal around the provinces.

The Resource Management Act imposes duties on councils and community boards that will have even the most rational liberty-minded councillor or community board member tearing out their remaining hair within weeks, and that dragon too needs to be slayed in its place of birth.

The best you can hope for in your area are bumbling time-servers who aren't as psychopathically incompetent as the average -- and there are few ways of knowing that in advance.

So, don't vote. It only encourages them.

I salute the emotions behind good people who do want to 'think globally and slay the beast locally,' people such as Blair, who says in response to this post at IP's, "It seems like every damned decision and bureaucratic Gordian knot devised is for the sole benefit of those who like a decent view while drinking their coffee. Meanwhile, lives are ruined and carefully made investments are flushed down the toilet on account of ... latte-sipping chardonnay socialists and their NIMBY supporters."

Sound sentiments, but the dragon needs slaying wholesale, not retail. Taking on the local government dragon at local level is not a labour for Hercules; it's a labour for Sispyphus.

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Comments on this post

Local voting
I had a read through my candidate summaries when they arrived.

I couldn't believe how similar they all are. Not a difference between the lot of them. All except the current mayor pretty much said:

"It is time for a change. I believe Wellington should be dynamic and vibrant"

Yawn...
To clarify, the current mayor just said "I believe Wellington should be dynamic and vibrant" without the bit about change ;-)
Steve Crow has promised to downsize the Auckland City Council. He will get my vote.
But perhaps pc, libertarianz don't stand for local elections because you have no one to stand, and secondly getting into actual politics might get some to realise that reality isn't objective.
Naaah. The people who stand for local body politics are exactly the ones who shouldn't be allowed to. Unctious, interfering bosybodies and turds the lot of 'em.

LGM
thank you lgm. I'm standing...
"I couldn't believe how similar they all are."

Same here, Craig. I crossed out everybody who mentioned the word 'sustainable'. No-one left.
I have a better way of showing your unimpressed with candidates: Instead of binning the form, send your form in with no one ticked. It shows you're not lazy, you're just not inspired.
Haha - I do that with most VUWSA elections.